Exclusive: Cara Santana On Being More Than Jesse Metcalfe’s GF

When I got the opportunity to interview Cara Santana, I will admit that I did not know much about the Hollywood beauty.

I knew she had impeccable style, even when she was just running errands in gym clothes, and I knew she was dating Jesse Metcalfe, but there were a lot of empty spaces. Even her publicist described her as solely a “fashionista.” However, I knew there had to be more to the famous face who commanded the attention of the paparazzi every time she stepped out her house.

And I was not disappointed.

The 31-year-old is not your typical fashionista. She is a “proverbial slash,” as she put it, with a television show, beauty app and fashion blog all on her resume. When I asked Santana how she would describe what she does, fashionista was no where on her list.

“I say first and foremost that I am an actress because that’s my career and what I’ve been driven to do since I was a young, young girl,” she said. “Obviously, now I have this company, so I guess categorically I’m an entrepreneur but I don’t really see myself as that. I just had an idea, and I thought I had a solution to a problem so I created the app. And then I have the blog, so I guess I am also a blogger. I’m a proverbial slash, slash, slash.”

From her burgeoning beauty app, Glam App, which is expanding to two cities a month over the next six months, to her blog Cara Disclothed, Santana has turned her passion for fashion into a business, and her empire is only just getting started. The Glam App is designed to bring hairstylists, makeup artists and nail artists to your home for a complete beauty experience. Modeled after Uber, the on demand beauty app divides up the stylists by years of experience, and allows artists to build their brands and clienteles while simultaneously providing luxury beauty to every day women at an affordable cost.

Speaking with the “Salem” star, she opened up about wanting all women to experience the red carpet treatment, her personal style and today’s ever evolving beauty standards.

Keep on reading for more on our exclusive chat with Cara Santana:

On her role in “Salem”: “I am having so much fun. It has just been such a dream job. As an actress, roles aren’t really made for women like they are for men. We are usually auxiliary characters and on Salem, there are just so may components that make it such a juicy role for me. One being the fact that she is 16th century Native American shaman. I don’t been speak English on the show, so I had to learn Algonquian. It’s hard, it’s daunting but I love it. You never want to stereotype or play into the idea of a culture. You get into trouble that way. I think its super important to honor the history of the Native American Indian and have a genuine respect for it. I had a sense, conscience concept of really portraying this character in the most honest and genuine way.”

On her Glam App: “As an actress, when you are promoting a project or promoting yourself for lack of better word, you go onto these red carpets, and the event or studio sends you a glam team, and it costs a thousand dollars. And I think luxury beauty in general is reserved for the elite, and I just remember having a moment where I was like, ‘God, beauty is intrinsic for a woman because when we look good, we feel good and when we feel good, we are empowered. And why shouldn’t every woman have the ability to have an affordable luxury beauty experience?’ And then I started thinking about the concept of Uber and OnDemand and OnDemand beauty, and what that looks like. And I was like, ‘There’s got to be freelance hair and makeup and nail artists out there that are trying to build their brand and surely there are women who want to have this beauty experience that is affordable and convenient. I started playing with the idea and then I called my now partner, who is a good friend of mine Joey Maalouf, who is a hair and makeup artist to the stars, and I was like ‘How do we create this concept and make it equally advantageous for the consumer and the stylist?’ and through that conversation the Glam App was really born.”

On her blog Cara Disclothed: “As an actress the first point of transformation and getting invested into a character is your physical appearance. I have always really been drawn creatively to fashion, and that vein of self expression. It’s the first way you can communicate to the world around you how you are feeling is by what you are wearing and how you look. I wanted to have a conversation about fashion, and I wasn’t trying to compete with Chiara Ferragnis and the Aimee Songs of the world, I just wanted to talk about clothes, I wanted to shoot my own content and I wanted people to know who I was wearing because they were always asking and it was a way to have a manageable conversation about fashion. Again, there is somewhat of an elitist, maybe superficial connotation about clothing, about the way we look. The fact of the matter is we all get dressed, so I really wanted to be able to break that elitist wall down and be able to talk about what I am wearing, whether it’s Keds with a [7 For All Mankind] jean or Steve Madden shoes with a Prada dress. It doesn’t really matter what you’re wearing, but how you’re wearing it and what you are trying to communicate in what you are wearing.”